PPC Resolutions for the New Year

This year make resolutions that matter! We challenge you to make 2012 the year you kicked PPC's butt - the year you tripled conversions!

Here's 5 resolutions tips to help you meet your 2012 PPC goal!

Show Off Your Numbers

Distinguish your text ad with specific numbers and descriptions. As soon as a user clicks 'search', they are innindated with thousands of results and hundreds of ads. I think it is fair to say most users feel a little overwhelmed.

In the sea of wordy descriptions, numbers stand out and can be reassuring to a user flooded with intangible adjectives.

$5 Shipping In The US

25 Unique Designs Starting at $30

15% Off Purchases Over $100

Quality Production Since 1975

What stands out? Obviously, the cost ($50) and number of options (25).

The days of throwing hundreds of keywords into a single ad group are over... they have been ever since Google released Quality Score. Google's AdWords system calculates a Quality Score for each of your keywords.

Google says their system "looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC)."

In the days of Quality Score, it is best a create PPC campaign with many ad groups with no more than 10-15 keywords per group. We also advise writing your ad's copy to include as many of those keywords as possible, but don't go keyword stuffing crazy and dilute your message because your ad still has to entice a user to click to be effective.

Include Your Product Stock Codes

We wrote about choosing keywords that indicate the user is looking to purchase or buyer keywords. If a user is searching for a SKU, that's a good indicator that the user is looking for a specific product and is further down the purchase funnel. Including a SKU in your keywords & ad copy is a great way of attracting buy-ready customers and upping conversions!

Create Unique Landing Pages

In almost every PPC blog post we write, we encourage creating customer landing pages for specific campaigns. How about making a 2012 resolution to spend some time creating high-quality landing pages for your PPC campaigns ( we promise your bottom-line will thank you).

That is not how you should treat buy-ready customers ( that you've paid for)!! You have insight on this customer, you know what they want - what would pretend you know nothing and send them to your homepage.

In 2012, create landing pages that lead your buyers down the purchasing funnel easily and simply. Make the purchase process intuitive and simple - purchasing from you should be a breeze!

Track Conversions

One of the reasons why merchants should love PPC marketing is because its so darn trackable! If you're doing it right, you should know quickly and if you're doing it wrong, you'll be able to find out fast and adjust your efforts. Despite that advantage, many merchants have yet to set up conversion tracking!!

We're declaring 2012 the year that ended spending money on adwords without tracking conversions! Join the revolution!!!

Google analytics and the Google adword Center offer free conversion tracking so there are no excuses! All you have to implement a script on your post-purchase "thank you" page ( you shoutl have one!!). This is the year that you know exactly what you're doing right and wrong in PPC!